WHY must Margaret Beckett and the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) interfere with so many tried and tested rural practices? For longer than most of us know, man has always buried what has died, either for sound health reasons or as an act of respect for the fallen.

Nature's disposal system is the most efficient and cost-effective possible and has served our world very well for centuries.

But now the European Union and DEFRA want to stop all that. I cannot see how leaving piles of dead animals to lie about farms and the countryside waiting to be collected by a system that no one appears to be able to operate is going to be any better than the tried and tested one of burying and using the knackerman.

Mrs Beckett and her cohorts should leave such matters to country folk. Perhaps DEFRA stands for Definitely Eradicating all Farming and Rural Activities.

David Quarrie,

Lynden Way,

Acomb, York

Updated: 10:47 Wednesday, April 14, 2004